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HOW NFL STAR CJ ANDERSON OVERCAME THE ODDS TO WIN ON AND OFF THE FIELD
HEATHER BALDWIN I
CJ Anderson running the ball at Super Bowl 50 where the Denver Broncos defeated the Carolina Panthers in 2016. ALL PHOTOS SUPPLIED BY CJ ANDERSON
t would have been easy for Super Bowl champion CJ Anderson to end up like all those other kids – living on the street, deal- ing drugs, watching life pass by. For a young man growing up in Vallejo, CA, this was the norm, the fallback path for when you couldn’t make it as a rapper. You went to school for a while; you found a “crew” (not a gang, he is quick to point out; a crew is
just a group of guys hanging out and doing life); and you did a little of this, a little of that, sold drugs, got in a few fights. Yes, it would have been so easy for Anderson to walk that path. Except for one thing: the wall of people blocking it. There were his mother and his grandmother, constantly pressing him to stay off the streets and do something with his life. There were his brothers, always looking out for him and making sure he stayed out of trouble. There was Philmore Graham, founder of the local Boys & Girls Club, who used to take away Anderson’s football and make him do book reports to stay on track academically. There was Miss Doster, Anderson’s fifth grade teacher, who he still calls “Miss Doster” out of respect for the role she played in pushing him hard toward the right side of the fork in the road, the one leading to success. Any time Anderson showed signs of veering toward a drop-out life on the streets, they and others intervened – pushing hard against the
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